Studies in Film, Media, and Visual Culture (305-0-20)

Topic

Cyber Japan

Instructors

Patrick James Noonan
847/467-0283
Kresge Hall - Office 4-550
Office Hours: Varies quarter to quarter, please check with instructor.

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-410: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Cyber_Japan

This course explores the interaction between cybernetic technologies and cultural production in modern Japan. We focus on how visual and literary media have been used to represent such technologies (robotics, cybernetics, and the Internet) as well as how these technologies have shaped Japanese culture in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The notion of the "cyber" - its origins in cybernetics and ensuing proliferation of meanings - forms the conceptual core of the course. After considering early definitions of this term, we turn to how Japanese manga, animation, film, and cultural theory explore the ways in which cybernetic technologies, like cyborgs and cyberspace, have expanded our understanding of human subjectivity and agency, transformed social relations, and blurred boundaries between the human and the animal, the biological and the artificial, and the physical and non-physical.

Teaching Method

Lecture and Discussion

Evaluation Method

Attendance and Participation Short Writing Assignments Midterm Assessment Final Assessment

Class Materials (Required)

All materials will be available through Canvas

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area